Pages

January 12, 2015

Ukraine has no plans to restrict grain exports after Russia
introduced curbs to stabilise surging prices, and will instead meet with
traders to plan the year ahead in "normal operating mode", agriculture
minister Oleksiy Pavlenko said on Saturday, The India Economic Times reports.

Last month, Moscow announced it would introduce grain exports duties of at
least 35 euros (US$41) per tonne from February 1 in a bid to defend domestic
bread supplies against a tumbling rouble.

Russia, expected to be the world's fourth-largest
grain exporter this year, had been exporting record volumes from a large crop
of 105 million tonnes as buyers took advantage of the rouble's decline.
Analysts had predicted that the new duty could raise demand for Ukrainian
grain, mostly wheat, and even lead to a domestic shortage.
But Mr Pavlenko said there were no curbs in the works and that the ministry
would meet major traders on Tuesday to discuss exports and local markets in
view of Russia's decision.
"Nobody is going to introduce any restrictions or any quotas. We (the
ministry), together with traders, can plan this year in a normal operating mode
without any restrictions," Mr Pavlenko told Reuters in an interview.
He said that the ministry and traders would likely prepare a memorandum for the
season, as they have previously, which allows for restrictions to be imposed if
exports exceed specified volumes.
Food wheat would be the focus of the meeting, Mr Pavlenko said, but declined to
give the maximum volume of wheat available for exports this season. He said
total grain exports could reach 33 million tonnes this season.
"We're keen to understand what (export) volumes every company has, we're
looking at balances in a bid to understand the full picture. We'll hold these
meetings regularly," he said.
Ukraine harvested about 23 million tonnes of wheat in 2014 and traders say at
least 10 million tonnes could be exported in the 2014/15 season, which runs
from July to June. Traders said 8.5 million tonnes of wheat had already been
sold abroad.
This year Ukraine had a chance of harvesting a crop as good as last year's as
conditions were similar, Mr Pavlenko said.
There is no final figure for Ukraine's total grain harvest in 2014, but the
ministry has said it could total 64 million tonnes.
Mr Pavlenko said that Ukraine's state-run grain firm GPZKU had fulfilled a
contract with China for the delivery of one million tonnes of maize despite a
shortage caused in part by the political turmoil in Ukraine, where a separatist
rebellion is underway in the east.
Industry sources said last month Ukraine was struggling to fulfil contracts
signed with China in October and that it could default on about 20 percent of
the volumes.
"The contract was under threat. There was a risk 11 ships wouldn't be
filled, but we were able to honour the contract. The ships are gone. On January
13, we expect to receive confirmation the contract was fulfilled," the
minister said.
The contract was part of a loan-for-grain deal between GPZKU and the China
National Complete Engineering Corp. Ukraine hopes to increase sales to the
company this year, Mr Pavlenko said.